The present invention relates to food grade oral compositions that facilitate the absorption of methyl group structure compositions. More specifically, the present invention relates to food grade oral compositions that absorb residual mouth alcohol present after alcohol ingestion.
Alcohol abuse is a national problem that extends into virtually all aspects of society. Current practice for alcohol measurements to detect alcohol abuse is typically based upon either blood measurements or breath testing. Blood measurements are generally considered the “gold standard” for determining alcohol intoxication levels. However, blood measurements typically require either a venous or capillary sample and involve significant handling precautions in order to minimize health risks. Once extracted, the blood sample must be properly labeled and transported to a clinical laboratory or other suitable location where a clinical gas chromatograph is typically used to measure the blood alcohol level. Due to the invasiveness of the procedure and the amount of sample handling involved, blood alcohol measurements are usually limited to critical situations such as for traffic accidents, violations where the suspect requests this type of test, and accidents where injuries are involved.
Because it is less invasive, breath testing is more commonly encountered in the field. In breath testing, the subject must expire air into the instrument for a sufficient time and volume to achieve a stable breath flow that originates from alveoli deep within the lungs. The device then measures the alcohol content in the air, which is related to blood alcohol through a blood-breath ratio (BBR). The blood-breath ratio used in the United States is 2100 and varies between 1900 and 2400 in other nations. The variability in the BBR is due to the fact that it is dependent on each person's physiology. In other words, each subject will generally have a BBR in the 1900 to 2400 range depending on his or her physiology, since knowledge of each subject's BBR is unavailable in field applications, each nation assumes a single partition coefficient value that is globally applied to all measurements. In the U.S., defendants in DUI cases often use the globally applied BBR as an argument to impede prosecution.
Currently breath analysis, in the form of breath measurements, is performed by breath analyzers (Breathalyzer, Intoxilyzer, Alcosensor, Alcoscan and BAC Datamaster are common brand names) which have been shown to have serious limitations. As a preliminary matter, breath analyzers estimate blood alcohol content indirectly. Different types of machines use different techniques and larger machines generally yield better estimates than do hand-held models. Therefore, some states don't permit data or “readings” from hand-held machines to be presented as evidence in court. South Dakota does not even permit evidence from any type or size breath tester but relies entirely on blood tests to ensure accuracy and protect the innocent.
A major problem with some breath analyzer machines is that they not only identify the ethyl alcohol (or ethanol) found in alcohol beverages, but also other substances similar in molecular structure. Those machines identify any compound containing the methyl group structure. Over one hundred compounds can be found in the human breath at any one time and 70 to 80 percent of them contain methyl group structure and will be incorrectly detected as ethyl alcohol. This fact adds serious complexity to field sobriety testing conducted with breath analyzer machines because the more different ethyl group substances the machine detects, the higher will be the false blood alcohol content estimate. This may lead to higher estimated blood alcohol content readings than are accurate and cause a subject being tested to render a breath analysis reading that indicates that they are operating a vehicle with blood alcohol content that is higher than the legal limit; commonly referred to as a false positive.
In addition to the numerous compounds that can be found in the human breath that may incorrectly elevate an alcohol content reading, the presence of “mouth alcohol” can further elevate the breath alcohol measurement, pushing a subject who may not technically be operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content higher than the legal limit to yield blood alcohol content levels that are higher than the legal limit when a subject is tested by way of breath analysis in the field. Currently the issue of “mouth alcohol” is dealt with by implementing a 15-minute waiting period prior to making a breath measurement in order to ensure that none or substantially low levels of mouth alcohol is present. For a similar reason, a 15-minute delay is required before a breath alcohol test may be administered in the field upon individuals who are observed to burp or vomit just prior to breath analysis testing. However, it is difficult to assess whether a subject being tested has burped within a 15-minute period prior to an actual field breath analysis test, causing ambiguity and questions regarding the accuracy of breath analysis field sobriety testing. A delay of 10 minutes or more is often required between breath measurements to allow the instrument to return to equilibrium with the ambient air and zero alcohol levels.
There is a need for an improved method of field testing that reduces the probability of false positive tests indicating that a subject who may not technically have an actual blood alcohol content level that is higher than the legal limit to yield false blood alcohol content level readings reflecting that the subject does in fact have an actual blood alcohol content level that is higher than the legal limit. There is also a need for an improved method of field sobriety testing that removes the disadvantages of the breath BBR and inaccurate field readings resulting from residual mouth alcohol and those resulting from breath analyzer machines that identify substances similar in molecular structure to that of ethyl alcohol (or ethanol).